Self-Defense Tip: Double Taps Suck. Ish.

Double taps (a.k.a., closely paired groupings) are a lot of fun. And Sturmgewehre unleashes them as quickly as any cowboy action shooter I’ve ever seen. That said . . . if the gunslinger’s thinking about self-defense, he might want to slow down and modify his draw. Although it’s nearly impossible to see without pausing the video, Sturmgewehre’s weak hand meets his gun hand on the way out to his final stance. For self-defense purposes, you want the hands to meet-up closer to his chest and then push out, rather than join hands mid-push. In a combat situation you may need to NOT to push the gun out, keeping it close to your chest for better retention or negotiating a corner. More importantly . . .

Training yourself to have one ballistic stimulus – response pattern (draw = double tap) is not a great idea, strategically speaking. You want reflexive gun-handling and marksmanship. But you want to be able to THINK about what you’re doing. How many shots do I need to put where when? Do I even need to shoot?

A combat vet recently told me he was in “pure reactive mode” the first few times he was in the thick of things. By the fourth time, he could reload a mag while considering his next move—with bullets flying nearby.

“Most shooters inoculate themselves to low-level stress,” he said. “Combat is always high-level stress. If you really want to be prepared for an attack, you need to practice under higher stress.”

At the end of the string, Sturmgewehre does a double tap on the right target and a single shot on the left. An ideal exercise: have someone call out which target to hit with a specific number of shots. “One shot right, two shots left.” Also, “Two shots right, no shots left” (where the shooter acquires the left target but holds fire with his finger off the trigger).

Bottom line: it’s more important to practice doing simple shoot / no shoot and multiple target drills than become Quick Draw McGraw and/or put two bullets in the same hole. Lest we forget, putting two rounds through the same hole is not as lethal as making the the bad guy leak in two places.

The absolute best high stress training is the use of Simunition and video cameras to review your reaction. Way too involved to do with a couple of friends. You need special barrels that cannot fire regular ammo, actors, strict shoot no / shoot scenarios, camera man, etc. Simuniton allows you to shoot each other with paintballs that load and fire from your duty weapon. Used to do this when I was a still a cop and it is the best. We even set up quick draw gun fights between officers at 10 feet. Even with safety gear these rounds still hurt. A couple of bad guys and a innocent bystander in a scenario will get your blood going.

Drills are fine. You can increase stress by running back to the bench then to the target, having someone else call which target to shoot, moving from one spot to another, etc.

I question whether shooting steal at that distance is safe though. It might be fine with frangible ammunition, lead, or low velocity SASS ammunition, but if he’s using copper jacketed factory ammunition that’s begging for a ricochet. I enjoy steal, but for close drills its better to use paper at that distance in my opinion.

I am retired a LEO firearms instructor. Both the shoot/no shoot scenarios and the double taps are important. Double taps are important because bad guys are too stupid to know they are dead. Some keep fighting until they pass out from blood loss or die. Many of these guys are “chemically motivated” by drugs or an imbalance in brain chemistry. Two rounds quickly to “center mass” helps to stop a fight. Well place shots are rare when you get a massive adrenaline dump from someone trying to kill you, so I don’t think the holes will be very close to each other. May departments use 9mm and, two 9mm holes are bester than one.

“…putting two rounds through the same hole is not as lethal as making the the bad guy leak in two places.”

My CHL instructor made the exact same point and intentionally had us fire the second shot as quickly as possible, the second one was more or less not aimed and was just fired using timing. Mine were consistently five or six inches apart at 10 feet.